Phoenixville discussing plans to redraw borough's four wards

PHOENIXVILLE — Phoenixville’s redistricting committee met for the first time Thursday evening to begin the discussion of how the borough’s four wards will be redrawn to distribute their populations more evenly and fairly.

“We do have a serious job to get through because this will affect the town for at least 10 years,” said Jen Mayo, the committee’s chairwoman and a member of borough council.

Phoenixville’s council is made up of eight representatives from four wards: North, West, East and Middle. According to borough ordinances, each ward may only have two representatives.

The redistricting committee is made up of residents from each ward. Mayo and Christopher Bauers are borough council members from the Middle and North Wards, respectively.

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Larry Tillotson, a resident of the West Ward and former chairman of the Phoenixville Democrat Committee, and Mike Kuznar, a Middle Ward citizen who formerly worked as a judge of elections in Pottstown, also are on the committee.

Mayor Leo Scoda, a representative of the East Ward, was not present at Thursday’s meeting.

The redistribution focuses on the borough’s entire population, no matter what their age or voting status.

“(It) doesn’t matter if they are registered to vote or not,” Tillotson said.

Though the meeting mostly focused not on specific numbers but the objectives of the redistribution and how that might be achieved, the undeniable fact is that the town’s North Ward is the largest by far, and the one with the most potential growth.

“The North Ward is going to be our biggest challenge,” Tillotson said. “We’ve got to shave 1,500 people out of the North Ward.”

According to plans discussed, a likely outcome of the redistricting will be that some North Ward residents will be redistricted into the town’s West and Middle Wards. In turn, to balance out the numbers, the Middle Ward will likely shift some of its numbers into the East Ward, which surrounds the Middle Ward on its eastern and southern sides.

The political shifting will begin with wards, the precincts within wards will be refined.

Bauers brought up the possibility of shifting precincts first, but Sundquist said borough ordinances state that wards must be adjusted first in the redistricting process.

Since precincts will be effected and likely altered, traditional polling places might have to shift to new areas, something the county election board will have to deal with. Still, the committee is considering that.

“I wouldn’t want to put anyone in a ward where they’d have to travel half a mile to vote,” Tillotson said.

“I think that’s very important that we’re cognizant of that,” Bauers said.

Using some maps provided by Penn State, Kuznar noted that tract lines were marked, showing specific property lines and not just streets. The possibility of redistricting along tracts is something else that may be explored to further winnow numbers, but the desire to keep neighborhoods together was expressed.

“It’d be a goal of ours not to split a street,” Tillotson said.

There is a possibility that current council members could find themselves redistricted into new wards. In that case, they would serve out there current terms in the wards they currently represent, then would have to run for re-election in their new ward.

The committee will likely take a harder look at physical numbers at the next meeting, tentatively scheduled for August 2. The committee will try to meet the first Thursday of every month.

It was acknowledged that, realistically the wards won’t be redrawn in time for the November elections this year, but by the end of 2012, in time for next year’s election cycle, the process should be finished.

“It would probably be too late to do it for this election cycle,” Sundquist said.

Once the committee finishes its work, borough council will have to approve the redrawn lines and the new plan will be sent to the county’s board of elections.